So one of our teachers walks into a public school today and is told that she has to leave. Her crime? Being pregnant. According to the school, pregnant people cannot set foot in the place within two months before their due date and three months after the birth. Apparently this is a "legal" issue. Of course no one bothered to call her and tell her yesterday and the poor, helpless, pregnant woman had to drive (the horror!) all the way to the school, only to be turned away.
Um. OK. I can understand if you're on a PLANE close to your due date, but in a SCHOOL? It's not even that far from the hospital. So what are they REALLY worried about?
Pregnancy isn't catching.
But it's a great demonstration of how Italy sees pregnancy on all levels: sickness, risk. By the way, I was working at the same school up until the week before my baby was born last year and went back (with the baby in a marsupial) soon after. This was brought up (in a positive way) over the course of the conversation, by the school, to highlight a certain understanding that we American breeders are a little different. It didn't help our friend's case, though.
She is a libera professionista, by the way. She just opened her tax code a few months ago, she has no maternity benefits at all. She doesn't work, she doesn't get paid. So she gets none of the benefits but is penalized for two months before and three months after the birth, even if she feels perfectly fine, is healthy and WANTS to work.
That's what you get for getting yourself pregnant I suppose.* .
*Ironic statement. Sneer.
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